This is FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn producer and director Naoki Yoshida and I would like to take the time to personally apologize once again to all those players who have been affected by the extended World login and character creation restrictions which have been in place for the past several days. I also understand that apologies will not help you get logged in, so I would like to give you an update on the situation at hand and the various measures we are currently employing to alleviate the situation.

Concurrent Connections

On the night following the announcement of our plans to temporarily limit sales of the download version, A Realm Reborn recorded upwards of 218,000 concurrent connections. This is in spite of the fact that the peak login times for separate regions around the world arrive at differing intervals. We estimate that without time zone differences, the total number of concurrent connections would number anywhere from 300,000 to 350,000.

As many of you know, this is the second launch for FINAL FANTASY XIV─something unprecedented in the MMORPG market. Considering the outcome of our first launch, our sales estimates for this one were decidedly conservative, as we believed that there would be a more gradual rise in users over the opening weeks and months.

Instead, to our pleasant surprise, we experienced tremendous support from a great number of players who were eager to get into the game from day one. To ensure that these players, once logged in, were able to play in a stable environment, we were required to implement login restrictions which kept server population near maximum capacity without exceeding those numbers.

The fact that we had to implement these restrictions is a direct result of my inaccurate sales and login estimates, and as producer, I must accept complete responsibility for this misstep. Each and every player who has been affected has my deepest apologies.

The Reasoning behind Login Restrictions

Each FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn World server has been designed to support a maximum of 5,000 concurrent connections. This is not the maximum number of characters which can be created on a World, however, but the maximum number of characters which can be logged into that World simultaneously. When more than 5,000 characters log into a World at once, there is a higher risk of server crashes and login errors. The restoration of crashed servers is usually followed by a rush of players attempting to log back in, which, in turn, puts a strain on our lobby server, and can ultimately have an adverse affect on all of the Worlds.

To prevent this from happening, we felt that the safest course of action would be to limit logins. However, we would like you to know that the restrictions are under constant surveillance. We are currently monitoring login numbers on all Worlds 24 hours a day, and actively removing/applying restrictions as soon as we detect even the smallest fluctuation in concurrent connection numbers.

Currently, peak login times for each region are occurring from approximately 9:00 p.m. to midnight. During this three-hour window, Worlds are more likely to have login restrictions implemented. These temporary restrictions are expected to continue until the time that we can execute the measures we have planned to alleviate the current situation. Those measures, including the addition of new World servers, are listed, in detail, below.

Character Creation Restrictions

As stated above, the maximum number of simultaneous connections each World server can handle is 5,000, while the number of characters which can be created on a World is several times that amount. This estimate of 5,000, however, is based on those characters being somewhat distributed over all the in-game areas (zones).

At the game’s start, however, while everyone is still at a low level, the majority of players are concentrated in the three city-states and surrounding areas. This can not only lead to a lack of enemies to slay (preventing quest progression), but also see area servers overloaded, and ultimately lead to crashes.

Fortunately, differences in total individual play time, login times, and character/class progression will eventually lead to players being more spread out within each World. Once this happens, there will be less need for both login and character creation restrictions.

As is the case with logins, our team is working around the clock, monitoring the current population of each area in each World, as well as the class level of each character, and adjusting new character creation restrictions based on their findings. Unlike login restrictions, we believe that character creation restrictions may take slightly longer to be removed, as there are still great discrepancies in the distribution of characters across Worlds, and we thank players for their patience and understanding in this issue.

Adding Worlds and Alleviating Server Load Issues

A server is essentially a high-spec PC, with each FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn World being made up of several of these machines. Creating a new World involves physically acquiring the servers, installing the necessary programs, and conducting internal functionality tests...all before opening the World to the public.

As the login data gathered from the Open Beta test (in which anyone, including those who had not purchased the game, could participate) was inconclusive, it was during the Early Access period that we had a clearer picture of the scope with which we would need to increase World capacity, and on the 25th of August began making preparations to do so significantly.

As of this post, the servers have been acquired, the essential programs installed, and we are currently in the process of conducting our internal tests. Once these tests have concluded and the Worlds go live, we believe we will be able to better accommodate a greater number of our players, making logging in less of a hassle.

In addition to increasing the number of Worlds, we are also optimizing the Duty Finder (party matching) management servers in an effort to reduce server load and ensure better stability when using this feature.

Currently, the Duty Finder servers split our data centers into two groups of 25 Worlds, and then do the party matching from players from within the same data center. We have determined that by adding new Worlds, the Duty Finder servers will not be able to process the additional data as long as there are only two pairings of groups to match from. Therefore, we have decided to create additional groups to alleviate this problem before it occurs, and by doing so, reduce the burden on the Duty Finder servers, and ultimately allow more players to access the feature.

The development and operations teams are currently concentrating 100% of their efforts into the aforementioned tasks and are on pace to have both completed by the beginning of next week and then released to the public once our final tests have concluded. Once a date and time for the implementation of the measures have been solidified, we will release another announcement on Lodestone outlining the details. We ask that you bear with us for just a few days longer while we make the final push.

Resolving AFK Character Issues

From several users on some of our more congested Worlds, we have received requests for a feature which automatically logs out characters who are AFK for an extended period of time. We are actively looking into the implementation of such a feature, but have decided to first concentrate our efforts on increasing the number of Worlds and optimizing the Duty Finder servers.

In Conclusion

The development and operations teams are working diligently to combat the login issues which many of our users are currently facing, and ask for your continued patience and understanding over the next several days as we move to solve these problems.

To thank all of you for bearing with us for so long, we will be looking into different ways to reward our loyal fans and customers, such as an extension of the free trial period. Details on the plans we have in the works will be announced shortly.

In conclusion, I would like to say that we have been overwhelmed with the positive response for A realm Reborn, which is why it doubly pains us to implement any sort of measure that may restrict people from joining us in Eorzea. We sincerely apologize for the unwanted stress these restrictions have caused, and thank you immensely for the understanding you have shown over the past week. The fixes are almost in place and we look forward to seeing all of you very, very soon.

Thank you.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Producer & Director Naoki Yoshida

Masterful letter IMO. (searched back a few pages, didnt see this, lock it if I missed it somewhere)

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A reader lives a thousand lives, the man who never reads lives only one. - George R.R. Martin

As of this post, the servers have been acquired, the essential programs installed, and we are currently in the process of conducting our internal tests. Once these tests have concluded and the Worlds go live, we believe we will be able to better accommodate a greater number of our players, making logging in less of a hassle.

I have to say, Yoshi is doing an outstanding job. Truly outstanding. Not only did he and his team completely defy the odds and resurrect an awful game in to something, that honestly has exceeded all my expectations by light years- but he's also done a fantastic job of communicating with us throughout the process. It's not like the guy doesn't have other things to attend to but this letter is detailed and thoughtful and shows that he is really aiming to take care of us as customers. It's impressive. He's really won my respect. Thank God Final Fantasy is returning to its former glory.

Edited, Aug 30th 2013 12:56am by ChaChaJaJa

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BlueLand wrote:

You can always take a screen shot of the 1017 error and set it to your desktop background, its like playing FFXIV from work

Hopefully, part of the solution will be free server transfers from already congested worlds onto the new servers.

I don't plan on moving, but I'm sure many others would. This would be a great way to more immediately solve the login issues. Despite the good news of more servers coming, I am somewhat alarmed by the "wait and see" solution for the current worlds. Having the AFK kicker will help, but I'm honestly not sure if that will really solve the problem to the degree it needs to be solved.

We'll see... I'm one of those forum posters with no IT background, so I'm well aware that I could easily be missing something.

I'm glad he's putting the AFK logout on the back-burner. Once they actually get servers setup to handle the traffic they have, there will be no reason for people to stay logged in for no reason anyway.

Why waste time on a temp fix for an issue you're working on a solution for anyway? This guy gets it.

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Rinsui wrote:

Only hips + boobs all day and hips + boobs all over my icecream

HaibaneRenmei wrote:

30 bucks is almost free

cocodojo wrote:

Its personal preference and all, but yes we need to educate WoW players that this is OUR game, these are Characters and not Toons. Time to beat that into them one at a time.

I'm glad he's putting the AFK logout on the back-burner. Once they actually get servers setup to handle the traffic they have, there will be no reason for people to stay logged in for no reason anyway.

Why waste time on a temp fix for an issue you're working on a solution for anyway? This guy gets it.

I'm glad it's not the priority as well. I do want to see it in game though. The less people on the server that do not need to be, the better. If you're not doing anything, we take up the resources?

I'm glad he's putting the AFK logout on the back-burner. Once they actually get servers setup to handle the traffic they have, there will be no reason for people to stay logged in for no reason anyway.

Why waste time on a temp fix for an issue you're working on a solution for anyway? This guy gets it.

I'm glad it's not the priority as well. I do want to see it in game though. The less people on the server that do not need to be, the better. If you're not doing anything, we take up the resources?

Most people will logout if they know they can login later without 1017 or if there's at least a queue. They should move the inn rest bonus to only applying on logout from any sanctuary. I would think that will resolve the issue of people staying logged in completely once the server issues are cleared up.

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Rinsui wrote:

Only hips + boobs all day and hips + boobs all over my icecream

HaibaneRenmei wrote:

30 bucks is almost free

cocodojo wrote:

Its personal preference and all, but yes we need to educate WoW players that this is OUR game, these are Characters and not Toons. Time to beat that into them one at a time.

Man... this yoshi guy has some balls and i have much respect for him. No other mmo ever has been so communicative and honest with the players. Most of the time the game companies dont give five cents to communicate.

Saqure enix on ffxi also sucked badly at communicating with players, so this is very refreshing.

This is why I really like Yoshi... he accepts full responsibility. I can accept mistakes if the person owns up to them and resolves to fix them accordingly.

Kudos to you Yoshi P. - Kudos!

Exactly my sentiments. I was definitely put off by the 1017 game, but just having him accept full responsibility eased my frustrations. The detailed explaination of their plans was just what the community needed.

Hopefully, part of the solution will be free server transfers from already congested worlds onto the new servers.

I don't plan on moving, but I'm sure many others would. This would be a great way to more immediately solve the login issues. Despite the good news of more servers coming, I am somewhat alarmed by the "wait and see" solution for the current worlds. Having the AFK kicker will help, but I'm honestly not sure if that will really solve the problem to the degree it needs to be solved.

We'll see... I'm one of those forum posters with no IT background, so I'm well aware that I could easily be missing something.

I'm ok with wait and see for the moment because we'll have a better idea of actual usage over the weekend when everyone with a canceled pre-order early access code is finally locked out for good if they did not purchase the game. I don't know exactly how much of a problem it was but I get the feeling it was an important factor.

I am truly impressed by his honesty about the issues. I have utmost respect for this guy, now. I think we are all so used to minced words and watered down PR coming from SE and it only adds to the frustration rather than assuage it. Instead, he cuts it real and gives us numbers to back it up.

I am truly impressed by his honesty about the issues. I have utmost respect for this guy, now. I think we are all so used to minced words and watered down PR coming from SE and it only adds to the frustration rather than assuage it. Instead, he cuts it real and gives us numbers to back it up.

I wish SE had more like him.

I've liked his attitude about everyhing since the time I saw him walk in and bap the guy on the head who was giving the video report with a cardboard summoner's horn. Plus, anyone who wears that many rings to his professional job and doesn't get looked at sideways has got to have a good attitude about his life.

So here a question for the IT people of ZAM. Could they prioritize one server at a time for testing and slowly start adding them today instead of Monday or does it make more sense to just release them all next week. I personally would take them adding one server at a time but making them available sooner than just releasing a whole bunch early next week.

So here a question for the IT people of ZAM. Could they prioritize one server at a time for testing and slowly start adding them today instead of Monday or does it make more sense to just release them all next week. I personally would take them adding one server at a time but making them available sooner than just releasing a whole bunch early next week.

Not complaining. I'm glad they are fixing it just looking at options.

I dont think adding servers will help that much when the current servers are overcrowded. I think they need to prioritize getting server capacity doubled over adding new servers.

looking forward to this. Really hoping that they allow for free world transfers or at the very least do something about the Legacy servers... I really thought that there would be less people trying to create on Legacy servers, and now I am to the point where I would almost rather just start from scratch on a new server than keep my character with multiple lever 50 jobs. I haven't bothered even trying to play since Monday when it took me 30 minutes to log in (with constant spamming) and then another 30 on my Wife's character, only to have the game freeze for her and having to start all over again.

Don't get me wrong, I totally support what SE is trying to do (make the people that can get in happy with a solid play experience), but it is a little frustrating, especially when you need to log in 2 characters.

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95THF, 95DRG, 90BRD, 94BLM, 95BLU, 90COR - Retired: Nov 2011 Someday soon my friends, this ride will come to and end, and we can't just get in line again.

looking forward to this. Really hoping that they allow for free world transfers or at the very least do something about the Legacy servers... I really thought that there would be less people trying to create on Legacy servers, and now I am to the point where I would almost rather just start from scratch on a new server than keep my character with multiple lever 50 jobs. I haven't bothered even trying to play since Monday when it took me 30 minutes to log in (with constant spamming) and then another 30 on my Wife's character, only to have the game freeze for her and having to start all over again.

Don't get me wrong, I totally support what SE is trying to do (make the people that can get in happy with a solid play experience), but it is a little frustrating, especially when you need to log in 2 characters.

I dont know why thye allowed legacy servers to be open to the public in the first place

The only thing that makes sense is that their environment is totally overwhelmed and was undersized and not properly designed for scaling. I also suspect that the original designers/architects are probably long gone and left no design documentation behind, leaving the current team to "McGyver" everything just trying to keep it afloat.

The first part is true. The latter part is false. These data centers are less than a year old and the server infrastructure was rebuilt from the ground up, so it wouldn't matter whether the original architects were part of the group that was fired two and a half years ago.

But yes, Yoshi P admitted they are overwhelmed and under prepared. They didn't expect it to be so popular.

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FFXI: Catwho on Bismarck: Retired December 2014

Thayos wrote:

I can't understand anyone who skips the cutscenes of a Final Fantasy game. That's like going to Texas and not getting barbecue.

As the login data gathered from the Open Beta test (in which anyone, including those who had not purchased the game, could participate) was inconclusive, it was during the Early Access period that we had a clearer picture of the scope with which we would need to increase World capacity, and on the 25th of August began making preparations to do so significantly.

I remember complaining about the "weekend only" limited beta going on, and a lot of people got flamed for 'expecting free playtime". Though it's way past the point and nobody cares, I HAVE GOT TO SAY: "Had you left the beta up for two solid weeks under open beta access to stress test the servers, this would have been dealt with by now".

As the login data gathered from the Open Beta test (in which anyone, including those who had not purchased the game, could participate) was inconclusive, it was during the Early Access period that we had a clearer picture of the scope with which we would need to increase World capacity, and on the 25th of August began making preparations to do so significantly.

I remember complaining about the "weekend only" limited beta going on, and a lot of people got flamed for 'expecting free playtime". Though it's way past the point and nobody cares, I HAVE GOT TO SAY: "Had you left the beta up for two solid weeks under open beta access to stress test the servers, this would have been dealt with by now".

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.

I'm going to look at this from another point of view. By limiting the beta to only weekends they actually probably got more participants simultaneously than by running it all week long for weeks on end. If they had left the servers up those with more time would have capped and stopped testing out of boredom because of the limited content in each phase. The idea that the current situation is because the beta tests were only conducted on weekends is ludicrous.

The only thing that makes sense is that their environment is totally overwhelmed and was undersized and not properly designed for scaling. I also suspect that the original designers/architects are probably long gone and left no design documentation behind, leaving the current team to "McGyver" everything just trying to keep it afloat.

The first part is true. The latter part is false. These data centers are less than a year old and the server infrastructure was rebuilt from the ground up, so it wouldn't matter whether the original architects were part of the group that was fired two and a half years ago.

But yes, Yoshi P admitted they are overwhelmed and under prepared. They didn't expect it to be so popular.

And you know this... how?

If it is all overwhelmed and under prepared, then it was epic in scale and beyond incompetent.

I would be more forgiving if what I suggested was true - if what your saying is true than SE/FF XIV team was legendarily negligent.

I don't understand this train of thought. People make calculation errors. Companies make mistakes. ****, you've probably made several mistakes today yourself. It's going to happen, no matter what you do. You can't avoid borking your day once in a while, and every so often you miss something incredibly important that seems completely "duh" as soon as the crap hits the fan. Hindsight is 20/20. It always seems so obvious after the fact.

They're admitting they made a mistake, they've said what it was and where they made it, and they've said how they're fixing it and the status they're at right now in getting it all fixed up. What more do you want at this point? They're blatantly honest about their ***** up, take full responsibility, offer some restitution because of it, and keep you informed where they're at. That level of openness unprecedented with any game company. Putting that letter out took some balls.

In XI, we used to get "ninja" patches. We all wondered what the **** it was for. SE used to be so tight lipped and vague about everything. Yoshi~P seems to have single handedly turned the entire company around. ****, with his success, he might have turned Japanese thinking around. He not only <Raise>ed the dead with ARR, but he <Convert>ed SE headquarters to follow his lead. This guy is amazing.

If it is all overwhelmed and under prepared, then it was epic in scale and beyond incompetent.

I would be more forgiving if what I suggested was true - if what your saying is true than SE/FF XIV team was legendarily negligent.

You've been a systems architect for 20 years and never had to deal with "scale it as small/inexpensive as possible to come in at budget then scale up from there as needed" ? Something doesn't sound right here.

The only thing that makes sense is that their environment is totally overwhelmed and was undersized and not properly designed for scaling. I also suspect that the original designers/architects are probably long gone and left no design documentation behind, leaving the current team to "McGyver" everything just trying to keep it afloat.

The first part is true. The latter part is false. These data centers are less than a year old and the server infrastructure was rebuilt from the ground up, so it wouldn't matter whether the original architects were part of the group that was fired two and a half years ago.

But yes, Yoshi P admitted they are overwhelmed and under prepared. They didn't expect it to be so popular.

And you know this... how?

If it is all overwhelmed and under prepared, then it was epic in scale and beyond incompetent.

I would be more forgiving if what I suggested was true - if what your saying is true than SE/FF XIV team was legendarily negligent.

I don't understand this train of thought. People make calculation errors. Companies make mistakes. ****, you've probably made several mistakes today yourself. It's going to happen, no matter what you do. You can't avoid borking your day once in a while, and every so often you miss something incredibly important that seems completely "duh" as soon as the crap hits the fan. Hindsight is 20/20. It always seems so obvious after the fact.

They're admitting they made a mistake, they've said what it was and where they made it, and they've said how they're fixing it and the status they're at right now in getting it all fixed up. What more do you want at this point? They're blatantly honest about their ***** up, take full responsibility, offer some restitution because of it, and keep you informed where they're at. That level of openness unprecedented with any game company. Putting that letter out took some balls.

Mistakes of this magnitude in any other industry would mean boxes of pink slips.

But the gaming industry, knowing that's its customers will take the abuse and keep coming back for more, continues to run their projects with incompetence borderline on negligence.

He turned a dead game around so completely they have to go out and buy additional hardware and pull all-nighters since launch to keep it running as much as possible. His "incompetence" forced the company to stop digital sales because of how completely overwhelmed they were with the success of the remake, one that nobody saw coming. You don't fire a guy or team for being too successful.

I don't know about the rest of you but I am so glad that he is actually explaining, in great details, what is going on and what is happening. It's a good sign when you compare it with the 'snub' treatment we received in XI.

I am generally ****** off ongoing when I can't play the game. I will however give respect to anyone who publicly owns their mistakes.

Yoshi - The fact that we had to implement these restrictions is a direct result of my inaccurate sales and login estimates, and as producer, I must accept complete responsibility for this misstep. Each and every player who has been affected has my deepest apologies. "

I may not be happy about it but I **** sure respect someone who owns up to their mistakes instead of passing the buck.

Don't mind him man, i'm pretty sure that him and his other sub-default buddies are all just blizzard employees that are afraid that a game that isn't wow might stop their gravy train.

/sarcasm off.

I don't think Blizz needed any extra help since they've lost 4 million subs since Cataclysm came out all on their own. Rebuilding FFXIV was the smartest thing SE could've done, and the overwhelming success of the launch (all the problems notwithstanding - these are good problems to be having and they're working on them around the clock) just goes to show people want a quality game. And..well, yanno...Final Fantasy.

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A reader lives a thousand lives, the man who never reads lives only one. - George R.R. Martin

I'm glad they're making new servers. This is absolutely something that needs to happen. What I'm wondering is if / how much it will help the current servers. Remember we're not just dealing with Character Creation restrictions. The servers are over-populated with current accounts. Unless they simultaneously increase server capacity or immediately (within a couple days) offer free transfers to NEW worlds, then current servers won't see a ton of relief, imo. We'll still have several times the server threshold attempting to log in at or around peak times.

I think this was the oversight some were afraid of when they announced "local" datacenters. As Yoshi said in his most recent correspondence, while a server hold more characters on it than it has available slots, the ebb and flow of rotating international peak times makes it ok. Now that we have effectively segregated the world into "East" and "West," there is no longer a semi-even flow of characters throughout the day. On NA servers it is several hundred, perhaps even thousand AFK'ers sucking up slots and several thousand more spamming log-in. Around 4am EST (JP prime-time if I remember correctly) not so much trouble getting in. Weekends, well... lol.

This isn't me hating on SE by any means. I fully expect that they've taken these things into consideration already, seeing as it is what they get paid to do. I'm just wondering out loud here since an explanation from them has not been put forth as of yet.

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Our team is like a flock of woodpeckers in a petrified forest. We just need to keep working and keep an eye open for opportunity.

While I understand the idea behind an auto-boot option for AFK users, I don't think they can implement something like that without also giving the user a way to disable it. For $14.95 or w/e the monthly sub is, I pay for continuous access barring unexpected crashes and maintenance. They can give us the auto-boot option for our own personal use (if I'd like the game to stop taxing my GPU if I have to unexpectedly go AFK longer than I planned), but if I pay the monthly sub, then I can stay logged in as long as I like. Unless, of course, there is a stipulation in the Terms of Service that I missed.

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Our team is like a flock of woodpeckers in a petrified forest. We just need to keep working and keep an eye open for opportunity.

While I understand the idea behind an auto-boot option for AFK users, I don't think they can implement something like that without also giving the user a way to disable it. For $14.95 or w/e the monthly sub is, I pay for continuous access barring unexpected crashes and maintenance. They can give us the auto-boot option for our own personal use (if I'd like the game to stop taxing my GPU if I have to unexpectedly go AFK longer than I planned), but if I pay the monthly sub, then I can stay logged in as long as I like. Unless, of course, there is a stipulation in the Terms of Service that I missed.

Come on seriously? SOP in most MMO's already. I can ***** with the best of them but I am not going to ***** about an AFK boot that should have been here all along.